Imaging the liver and pancreas
M Sheridan and
J A Guthrie
Consultant Radiologists, Department of Radiology, St. James' University Hospital, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds, LS9 7TF, UK
This issue of Imaging concentrates on radiology of the liver and pancreas.
The issue starts with two general articles on imaging of the jaundiced adult and imaging of the jaundiced child. In both of these articles the authors have indicated the important clinical information that the radiologist should glean before deciding on the most appropriate imaging algorithm. Suggestions are made to help the radiologist decide what is the most appropriate means of imaging and the features that they might look out for using modern radiological techniques. In the article on imaging and acute pancreatitis the authors have provided a state of the art review of the role of various imaging techniques. They emphasise the importance of imaging in this potentially fatal disease and also indicate which patients with milder disease who require only a minimal input from radiology. The chapter on tumours of the pancreas includes not only the common tumours that we see regularly such as pancreatic adenocarcinoma but also the less common tumours, particularly the cystic tumours, which we appear to be picking up with ever increasing frequency with the explosion in the use of cross-sectional imaging. The final three chapters are dedicated to MRI of the liver. Liver MRI is now recognized as having a crucial role in both detection of liver lesions and also in the characterization of liver lesions that are detected with other imaging methods. The final chapter on fat in the liver illustrates the difficulty that fat can cause during imaging using all techniques. We are given however a useful method to try and sort out pathological from non-pathological fat and fat that may be either obscuring or mimicking significant pathology. We hope that you find the articles in this issue of practical help when dealing with situations that we come across regularly in clinical work.
